Nvidia's new GeForce RTX 3000 series is truly impressive: If the GeForce RTX 2000 series brought dedicated ray tracing hardware and smart graphics rendering technology to PC gaming, the RTX 3000 series accelerated it even further. In other respects, however, next-generation consoles are far from redundant. Let me explain why.

The $699 GeForce RTX 3080 offers 4K, 60 frames per second gaming and dramatically better ray tracing performance than the $999 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. The $499 GeForce RTX 3070 also promises to outperform the RTX 2080 Ti and will likely be one of the most affordable graphics cards of 2020.

If you're a PC gaming fan, you might find the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 worth the $500 you'd spend on a PS5 or Xbox Series X.

If you're a PC gaming fan, you might find the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080 worth the $500 you'd spend on a PS5 or Xbox Series X.

As someone who owns a gaming PC, I essentially agree with that. But in practice, there are subtle nuances. And there is a compelling argument that even if you like PC gaming, you shouldn't dismiss next-gen consoles.

Let's start with the basics: if you're good at assembling IKEA furniture or building Legos, upgrading your PC is realistically easy. However, a lot of PC technology has evolved over the past few years. You can put a GeForce RTX 3080 or RTX 3070 on your PC, but unless that PC has the latest and most efficient Intel or AMD processor, and fast RAM or SSD, it will effectively suppress the performance of your shiny new graphics card This can be a problem.

My gaming machine has a Ryzen 7 1800X, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Radeon RX 590, all on a motherboard that is a few years old, and it is solid enough to run most games at 1080p with settings maxed out. It's a solid gaming machine that can run most games at 1080p and maxed out settings. However, when it comes to putting an RTX 3070 on it, the GPU is hampered by the first-generation Ryzen CPUs, even though it has an 8-core processor.

This means that to take full advantage of the technology Nvidia has put into the RTX 3000 series, you will need a new processor, a new motherboard, and possibly new RAM. And while we're at it, let's upgrade the power supply unit. [A $499 GPU becomes an $800 PC upgrade. A $500 PS5 that supports ray tracing and performs at 60fps at 4K suddenly seems like a bargain, even if your games won't look as good. [The new GeForce RTX 3080 may seem like a more attractive upgrade than the RTX 2080 or GTX 1080. However, you need to consider whether you have a display that can take advantage of the power of the RTX 3000 series.

Does your monitor have a resolution of 1440p or 4K and support higher refresh rates, such as 144Hz? If not, you may be wasting all that Nvidia power.

I have a 1080p 60Hz display connected to my gaming PC. It is a perfectly usable screen, but the GeForce RTX 3070 would be overkill for it, even if my PC is GPU-bottlenecking. I could certainly use ray tracing, but not enough to justify buying a new graphics card rather than buying an Xbox Series X, which also promises ray tracing support, and connecting it to my monitor.

And before any PC enthusiasts chastise me in the comments, yes, I know there are people with the right PC setup who want a GeForce RTX 3000 series card. Heck, I imagine there are several people who are looking at building a tremendously expensive gaming PC with a $1,499 GeForce RTX 3090 at its core. Also, don't forget to get an 8K monitor.

One thing to emphasize, however, is that many games are multi-platform titles and are developed for the low public denominator. In the case of the next generation of game consoles, that means the PS5 with 10.28 teraflops of GPU power.

Therefore, it may be some time before PC games take advantage of the GeForce RTX 3070's graphics capabilities. While frame rates will increase and textures will be sharper, it is unlikely that visual fidelity will improve significantly when comparing games running at 4K on PS5 to games running at the same resolution on PC.

After all, thanks to various software and hardware optimizations, it often takes a powerful gaming PC to match the performance of a console, even though PC specs are dominating console hardware.

Before we move on, I don't want to cheapen what Nvidia has accomplished with the GeForce RTX 3000 series, three powerful GPUs that not only cater to those who want a powerful gaming PC or a high-end gaming PC, but also a machine that will make mincemeat of their games for years to come It also caters to those who seek.

But Nvidia has not given us a compelling reason not to buy a next-generation gaming machine. I've been gaming on a PC for years, and the new consoles still make a big compelling case, especially the PS5 with its many exclusive games.

The next generation of consoles will feature plug-and-play game boxes that can actually take advantage of 4K TVs, and a ton of other technologies like custom SSDs, 3D audio, DualSense controllers, and more. And as much as I love scouring the PCs, there's nothing wrong with sitting on the couch and playing "Halo: The Master Chief Collection" on the Xbox One X, even if the PCs offer better frame rates and better aiming accuracy with the mouse.

Convenience is king in many things, especially for those with little time. That's why, despite the cries of PC fans in the face of Nvidia's new GeForce graphics cards, you can't dismiss the PS5 and Xbox Series X.